Voting and Cooking

I understand why Blacks are more likely to vote Democrat, but I still don't understand why Blacks would be more likely to vote a straight ticket or just vote for the top few offices and skip the rest. Even if it's true, wouldn't calling attention to it be patronizing or stereotyping or something? If I was Black, and they told me I couldn't vote straight party anymore, I would make a special point of methodically going down the list and checking each Democrat one by one just to spite them. Anyway, the law doesn't allow straight party voting on the Republican side either, so what's the point?

Speaking of goofy voting laws......Some time ago, Ken and I discussed the voter ID laws that some states have passed. In Michigan, if you don't have a driver's license or state ID, you can turn your ballot application over, sign the affidavit on the back, and they will let you vote. One day, while voting, I turned the thing over just to see what it says, and the only thing it says is something like, "I hereby certify that I do not have a driver's license or state ID card." That's all it says, nothing about being a citizen or residing in the precinct, or anything else about being qualified to vote. So then, why did they bother to pass a law like that? Why would a Black or Hispanic be less likely than anybody else to sign that affidavit? There are signs posted in the polling places that say there is help available for anybody who doesn't read or write English, so that's no excuse.

The difference between the Beaglesonian no-fry breakfast and an omelet is that you stir all the ingredients together instead of folding them over. It's more like scrambled eggs with ham and cheese added than it is like an omelet. Also, as the name implies, you don't fry it.

We have natural gas pipelines in Northern Michigan, but the pipelines don't go everywhere. People who aren't on the pipeline generally use propane or electricity for cooking. Appliances can be converted from one kind of gas to another, but when you buy any kind of gas appliance, they will ask you if you use natural gas or propane, and then sell you the correct appliance.

When we lived in our last house, it was on a paved road right outside of town. There was natural gas service to the next intersecting roads on either side of us, but not to our road. Now we live on a gravel dead end road in the swamp, but we have natural gas. The reason is that our local electric co-op wanted to get into the gas business, and the commercial gas company didn't want them to. The gas company refused to expand their service area, but they still didn't want anybody else to go into the un-served territory. They controlled the easements on all the main roads around here, so the co-op went down our road and struck out across the swamp to connect to the next un-served area. We didn't even have a house on the property then, but the pipeline went right by us and, when we built our house later, all we had to do was hook up to it.